Introducing Delyana 

“Migration seems like something natural for musicians. No matter where we are…we, musicians, always find a common language and at the end there is always something new to learn from the new culture, or country you’ve migrated to”. 

Delyana is a conductor and musician based in Manchester. She was born and raised in Bulgaria and she has travelled to many places to work with different orchestras across Europe and North America, including Albania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. She recently won the Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition to become Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra in Manchester. Her practice is based on a lifelong dedication to classical music and a determination to share the music with the widest possible audiences. 

Delyana’s Musical Life Story 

Delyana was born into a musical family in the city of Plovdiv. Her childhood coincided with a tumultuous time in the history of Bulgaria, the transition from communism to democracy. She recalls that some people seemed to have mistaken ‘democracy for anarchy’ but that, having been enrolled in a music school from age five, she grew up in ‘a very protective environment’. Before this, Delyana’s main musical inspiration was her family: her grandfather would often play his guitar and sing songs to entertain guests; and her mother worked as a composer in the theatre, writing new musicals and providing incidental music for plays. 

“I started playing violin when I was five and, before that, I played the piano. My mom was the main force in this…She would sometimes work at home. There were moments when I would join her and she would play some pieces she’s been working on for me, and we would discuss them, we’d laugh, and sometimes we would argue! But she was really wonderful because she was always open for me to go and be curious about things…That played a huge role in my life”.

During music school, Delyana continued to improve her proficiency in violin and develop her musicality and a love for classical music. However, she also points out a broad ‘amalgam’ of musical influences in her early life, from Bartók to Britney. 

“Classical music and different composers always very much interested me…but I have to say I also spent a lot of time within the Bulgarian folklore music…In the music school, we also had a folklore class, which we had to sing over 50 songs and to dance over 10 different folklore dances, so that was a lot of fun and I loved it…The Bulgarian folklore is extremely famous, because of the all the rhythms that it includes…and also the intervals and the harmonies…A lot of times, the different voices in our folklore songs are set on a minor second of each other. You hear two ladies singing on a minor second for a few seconds and it’s incredibly beautiful…Béla Bartók and a lot of other composers have been deeply inspired by that…So having those two influences was something very enriching for me". “It’s inevitable to listen to the music of the day. My parents were also huge fans of stuff like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all of that. Pop culture left certain marks on me. I remember screaming some Britney Spears at some point in my teenage years!…Bulgarian pop culture was also quite strong at the time…And I love jazz...And of course, musical theatre – that was inevitable! I’ve seen all the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and other ones”. 

Nevertheless, Delyana emphasises that classical music always spoke to her on ‘a different level’ and, at age 18, she won a scholarship to pursue her studies in United States. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as her performance diploma at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Gradually, her career transformed from violinist to conductor. 

“Violin is something that’s part of my life, for sure. It’s kind of my voice, but it was never enough somehow…After my studies, I got to work as a concertmaster of Montgomery Symphony Orchestra for two years…and then things started happening with conducting, little by little, and I found myself accepted into a conducting programme in Zurich, Switzerland…where I’ve been for the past two years”. 

After completing her residency in Zurich, Delyana entered the Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition. Culminating in a performance of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino (see video), she won the prize and the role as Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. Unfortunately, the start of her new position was delayed by the national lockdowns and international travel restrictions instigated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but she has now taken up the role and expresses hopes that the orchestra can help to inspire the people of Manchester through music, especially in this difficult time. 

“My hopes are that we are going to do some really fantastic programmes. My hopes are that we will be able to reconnect with each other and with our audience and reach out to our community. My hopes are that we will be able and enabled to make music on such a high artistic level that it will inspire the people of Manchester and I will do everything that I can to connect, to get people to come to concerts, to get kids to come to concerts. The Hallé has such a diverse programme, from really serious concerts to fun concerts and educational concerts. I’m looking forward to being part of all of that”. 

The Meanings of Delyana’s Music 

Delyana states that music is at the very heart of her identity, that she could not imagine herself without music. She also emphasises the importance of the musical score both in her work and her own appreciation of music. 

“It’s very difficult to really say what music means to me, because since I remember myself, I’ve lived in music. So, I cannot imagine – and honestly, I don’t want to imagine – a time that we’re not going to have music or classical music. There is no specific meaning because it’s like asking ‘What does life mean to you?’. I’m living it!”. 

“I have scores open everywhere, learning constantly new pieces, and revisiting old ones. They for me are like letters that the composers wrote to me! It is something quite personal when you look at them. I always try to imagine how they would sound and what kind of colours there will be in the music. In that way, there is constantly a soundtrack going on in my head”. 

She indicates that music fuelled her ‘journey’ as a migrant, her experience of ‘going into a different culture‘, and claims that, because music offers a way of connecting across cultures, migration is a very ‘natural’ process for musicians. She suggests that classical music is particularly effective at bringing people from different places together because it offers a ‘common language’, although she points out that it can also tease out ‘specific, special things’ within different cultures. She reflects that the music enabled her to overcome difficulties she faced when she first travelled to the United States and helped her to ‘never feel completely a stranger’ in any of the places to which she has moved. 

“The first time when I went to the [United] States I was 18 and my English was let’s say less than perfect at the time. And I felt so weird because people would pass by and part of the greeting was ‘Hey, how are you?’. But, in Bulgaria, if someone asks ‘How are you?’, you basically stop and usually start complaining about something! So, it was so weird for me, we pass with some person on the street or at school and then they say ‘Hey, how are you?’ and then I will stop and start telling them how I am really, but they will not listen and then I felt slightly misunderstood. But then, with some of those colleagues that I had these moments of misunderstanding with language, we sat and we started playing Brahms String Quartet No. 1. And then so many things that I couldn’t say in English or they couldn’t tell me in Bulgarian became clear. It is a cliché that music is a universal language, but I think it’s something other than language, I think it’s connecting and communicating on a deeper level”. 

“One funny thing I would mention [about these specific, special differences] was that, in Bulgaria, if you say yes, you nod this way [side-to-side] and, for no, it is this way [up-and-down]. Now I have been in the [United] States and Zurich, I know to nod to say ‘Yes’ so I adapted. But, it was funny, I was in Albania and I was working there with the Radio Orchestra in Tirana and I was asking something of one of the trombone players and I asked him ‘Is it clear?’ and he kept shaking his head to me and I even asked the concertmaster ‘Is there a problem, he is not understanding me?’ and then at some point he scream at me ‘Yes, yes, yes – how many times I say yes – it’s OK!’ and then I was like ‘Now I know it is not only in Bulgaria but in Albania they go this way when they say yes!’”. 

Delyana views the orchestra as ‘the soul of a community’ and concerts as a ‘spiritual experience’ and she understands the role of conductor as notably multifaceted, encompassing musician, musicologist, historian, agent, music ambassador and community leader. Nevertheless, she also suggests that it has become particularly apparent during the current pandemic that music can also be a personal and individual experience. 

“An orchestra [is about] the feeling of people playing together and that sense of community…The orchestra and the conductor, we are the vehicle in which we present the music [but we also] have to serve the community as well as the community has to support this musical centre. I believe it’s a very deeply shared place…Going to a concert offers you something that you cannot get anywhere else – going and experiencing something with 1,000 other people around you. You are together with others but you are also so connected with yourself, your feelings, your thoughts…It is turning off all the things that are going on in your head and just listen and be taken to a place and be free to be moved…This is our best quality as humans – to connect, and to connect on a deeper level through music”. 

“This year is the year of Beethoven – 250 years since his birth. And it’s kind of funny, because the year that we were supposed to celebrate him, the music went silent [because of the Covid-19 pandemic]. And it is a peculiar thing to think about, because maybe we got to experience something that he experienced – we didn’t get the chance to go to a concert and to hear the music, we had to keep the music alive within ourselves”. 

Just as music broadened her own horizons, Delyana is keen to broaden the scope of the classical music canon. While she expresses reverence for canonical composers, including Beethoven and Brahms, she highlights the possibilities for making the canon more inclusive, especially in terms of place and gender but also with regards to ‘modern classical music’, or ‘music written today’ and ‘music written tomorrow’. She also hopes to get involved in collaborations between classical orchestras and ensembles from other musical styles and traditions, particularly jazz music, pointing to projects led by Simon Rattle and Cristian Macelaru as inspiration. 

“I love the music of Bartók. I love the music of Eastern European composers. I am trying right now to push for some programmes to include also Polish composers, such as Grażyna Bacewicz. She’s a Polish composer…If we look at the past of western classical music and also the past of conducting, it’s quite a male past. And the reasons are many, of course, but now we are in a stronger position that we can change…I came into this profession in a time when things are opening already. People like Marin Alsop and other women conductors, I think they met much stronger resistance before…Things are definitely changing, not only of sex but anything – it’s time to open up and not to be afraid”. 

Classical Music in Manchester 

Delyana, while stressing that she is still a new arrival in Manchester, indicates that she is ‘impressed’ with the position of the Hallé orchestra in the city. She states that she admires how the people of Manchester value the orchestra and the Bridgewater Hall. 

“The taxi driver and the people working in the hotel I had to stay for a few nights all knew about the Hallé. They were all so excited that they have met me now or that they had been to a concert or that their family had been to some of the family concerts or educational concerts and all of that. What I’ve seen so far, from the people I’ve met randomly in the city, they all know about the orchestra and I think the orchestra and the music it brings has a very real part in the lives of the people in Manchester. That makes me incredibly happy because I get to be part of this institution and work in that relationship between the orchestra and the people”. 

Based on this, she hopes that her activities as a conductor can further help the orchestra to offer programmes which challenge the expectations of classical music. While the Covid-19 pandemic poses a number of challenges for her plans, she is also aiming to draw out inspiration from the current situation. 

“Right now, the most important factor of deciding what to perform is the allowance of ‘How many people can we have in one room?’. So, we are trying to take this as an opportunity for us to explore repertoire that, for example, the Hallé orchestra hasn’t played before or the Youth Orchestra also hasn’t worked on…There will be some limitations, but we are really trying to be inspired and to find pieces that fit the current mood, that fit the current situation, and to inspire people”. 

Although some commentators lament the current state of classical music in the UK and beyond, Delyana is optimistic that the music will still thrive, as long as its advocates strive to reach out to new audiences and make the music more accessible. 

“I want to try to reach out as much as possible…We are going to livestream concerts from the Bridgewater Hall. I hope even more people around Manchester will listen to the concerts…[to help] keep the music alive…We are also interested in going to the people, performing in venues we have not performed in before and having pieces that we haven’t done before…There are so many things and so many ways we can go, especially because the Hallé is an orchestra with such an incredible past – it is one of the oldest not only in the UK but in the world…Manchester is so lucky to have really an orchestra of such a calibre that has a very strong international profile as one of the leading orchestras in the industry, but at the same time also they are fulfilling a tremendous role within the community, in serving the community and bringing everyone together…So, we bring this with a certain pride but we are also willing to change and to adapt to the times of now and the community needs”. 

“I think we are in desperate need of music…because it gives us so much deeper meaning…especially when everyday life kind of shackles us. And this is the time when really our humanity comes together, when you see this music, and it touches you on a completely different level than anything everyday. I hope we don’t lose that, we should not lose that. I hope that the future generations will have the possibility to know this music. But it’s not something that they will just discover – music and art is something that it’s transmitted from generations….When people think of classical music, maybe the idea of something old and maybe irrelevant comes to mind - but there are so many aspects that are relevant and so many things that are expressed…I know it’s a challenging time for professional musicians and ambassadors for art and for life in music. But I am strongly feeling that we will fight and we will make sure that we are relevant and we also have to change for this, depending on what is the time, [so that we can] bring all the wonderful things that that we have to offer”. 

La Forza Del Destino (see video) 

Delyana shared this performance of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, in which she conducts the Hallé orchestra in the final stage of the Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition. She indicates that she was ‘surprised’ that this piece became one of her favourites because it is not a longstanding part of her repertoire but points out that the amazing experience of communicating with the orchestra in this performance has given it a special meaning for her. 

“Honestly, I haven’t conducted this piece before. Of course, I’ve studied it, and I know it, but I never got the chance to work on the piece with any orchestra. So, for me, it was one of the pieces that I was like ‘Well, let’s see!’. But then, for the performance, it just went so well and the orchestra was so committed. I had certain ideas, but in the moment when you conduct, it’s not a one-way street – it’s a dialogue. The Hallé are just such fantastic players, each of them in this orchestra…They offered so much in that moment. Sometimes, I would have an idea, but then they offer something else and I was like ‘Okay, we’ll go with that’ but then, sometimes I will try something and they would come with me and they would react so quickly. So this communication, at the moment of the performance was something unforgettable…The performance of La Forza just went really, really well. And then I thought ‘Oh, my goodness, this is such an amazing piece’ and then I realised ‘Well, yes, the piece is good, but also the orchestra was the reason I loved it!’”.